I love Venus and Mars especially in their WOA versions. it s very hard to rank albums since I fins something to like in most Macca albums. For several reasons Ram, Mccartney and BOTR have always been my absolute favorites followed closely by Tug of war, Mccartney 2 and Chaos. Maybe Venus and Mars should be there as well. i t s a bit early in the game but after this NEW release the trinity might be a foursome of Ram, mCCARTNEY, BOTR and NEW. The main thing is that I and judging from other forums many seasoned Maccaadmirers react the same about this new album so there is something there lo and behold....

BTW...not knocking your choices, jg...curious what you like so much about VENUS AND MARS enough to rank it that high? Maybe I'm missing something. I DID love it when it first came out, but over time, listening to it, it just seems thin sounding and bland.

Flaming Pie is #7!!!!

And its very close between all of these records - VM, Flaming Pie, New, MAF... its hard to put a shred between them - other than I've lived with VM, well, my entire memory, and have it solidified, and I was not quite ready to dub New higher without living with it a while.

Flaming Pie, my problem with it is that half the songs are top-notch Macca (Souvenir being one of my all-time favorites), and then you have this other half (Really Love You, Used To Be Bad, If You Wanna, Heaven on a Sunday) that are pretty half-baked-- on that basis, I can't rate FP higher than VM, where at least all the songs are finished. By the way, that's my complaint about Everybody Out There - man, what a great Macca song, but he didn't finish it - not quite as glaring in this way as Backwards Traveler, but still, what a blown opportunity!

Everyone's talkin' 'bout the President
We all chip in for a bag of cement

Agree about Flaming Pie being a bit halfbaked. The great tracks there are great. Little Willow, Heaven on a sunday etc. But some of those jams are entertaning but not particular brilliant reallyThe thing with NEW is that I actually cant find one singe song that I don t like. Of course some more than others but it s like all killers .no fillers. That is a are thing not only for Macca but concerning most albums. O f course some of the excitement can be part of that these are NEW songs - in fact they always be NEW songs but..........being a longtime Maccaadmirer and actually a person that has a rather vast knowledege of music I don t think so. I trust my instinct and my ears and for instance a pianoballad as touching and melodic as Scared I haven t heard from Macca for the best part of 40 years. And a popsong like Turned out I have not heard since Ram and on and on.......

Please, tell me what you folks like about it so much. I can tell you why I don't, but I'd like to hear the positives. Maybe I'll re-evaluate!

1) It contains one of the 10 best Macca tunes of all time, Listen To What the Man Said. 2) It contains one the 5 great Macca vocal performances, Call Me Back Again3) Everything else on here is 4 star material- You Gave Me the Answer, Letting Go, Love in Song, the title track/Rock Show4) Even the worst track, Spirits..., would be celebrated if it were part of MAF or this record-- I'd say Spirits is on par with "Get Me Out of Here"5) I see it as the "last gasp" of Beatle McCartney - after VM, the songs and production seems more modern, some of the detail put into the production of every song (not just the singles) is lost.

Dim the lights and listen to the 5.1 version that came out a few years back (really just a tweaked Quad mix) - it will blow your mind.

Everyone's talkin' 'bout the President
We all chip in for a bag of cement

Please, tell me what you folks like about it so much. I can tell you why I don't, but I'd like to hear the positives. Maybe I'll re-evaluate!

1) It contains one of the 10 best Macca tunes of all time, Listen To What the Man Said. 2) It contains one the 5 great Macca vocal performances, Call Me Back Again3) Everything else on here is 4 star material- You Gave Me the Answer, Letting Go, Love in Song, the title track/Rock Show4) Even the worst track, Spirits..., would be celebrated if it were part of MAF or this record-- I'd say Spirits is on par with "Get Me Out of Here"5) I see it as the "last gasp" of Beatle McCartney - after VM, the songs and production seems more modern, some of the detail put into the production of every song (not just the singles) is lost.

Dim the lights and listen to the 5.1 version that came out a few years back (really just a tweaked Quad mix) - it will blow your mind.

When you mention all these songs I suddenly realise what à great album Venus and mars is great stuff

I can't wait to hear this album. So far our radio station is actually playing the title track (Sometimes if you ask, the corporate guys will let you do something cool like play new McCartney stuff) and we all agree it would fit well on Magical Mystery tour or Sgt Pep. I've heard the others from the ITunes fest and sought out Queenie Eye after reading this thread. Very excited for next week. Love what I hear on this album so far. Keep Rockin' Paul!

1) It contains one of the 10 best Macca tunes of all time, Listen To What the Man Said.I couldn't agree more, here. As a pop song, it is nearly flawless. I absolutely ADORE this song. When I first heard it, it seemed to almost have a surreal, other-worldly vibe to it...and, after a kazillion plays, and nearly 40 years gone by-- through how many style changes in music-- it STILL DOES!

2) It contains one the 5 great Macca vocal performances, Call Me Back AgainNot a fan of this song. Hate the lyric. Like the live version, though...better. In fact, the LIVE versions of the VENUS & MARS songs, for the most part (with the exception of "Listen To What The Man Said") blow the album versions away. Just my opinion.

3) Everything else on here is 4 star material- You Gave Me the Answer, Letting Go, Love in Song, the title track/Rock Show"You Gave Me The Answer" is a great little period piece, ala "Honey Pie" and "When I'm Sixty Four." Agree there. "Letting Go" sounds soft and insincere...kind of like a lame attempt at a remake of "Let Me Roll It." "Love In Song" is a pretty song...yes. The title track just doesn't do it for me re: the studio version. The live version blows it to little pieces. It's a song BORN to be played live, and Wings did an incredible job with it in that regard. I'll never forget being at MSG in '76 and the lights went down, and you could just see these silhouettes on the stage, and they went into the song...then, when it blasts into the "Rock Show" segment, the lights went up immediately, and it was an incredible rush. The band was awesome. The guitars were heavy. That live album, as much as I love it, did NOT do justice to what you heard when you WENT to the shows. That band kicked ass. Jimmy McCulloch, even if he was an immature, a-hole drug addict, was spectacular on his leads and riffs. Paul sang and played incredibly well.

4) Even the worst track, Spirits..., would be celebrated if it were part of MAF or this record-- I'd say Spirits is on par with "Get Me Out of Here""Spirits Of Ancient Egypt" has one of the worst lines in the history of rock and roll: "you can take a pound of love/and cook it in the stew" Huhh?? Wha??? Awful lyric. But, the live version was fantastic...because it rocked. You didn't notice the lyric while the band was playing the hell out of it.

5) I see it as the "last gasp" of Beatle McCartney - after VM, the songs and production seems more modern, some of the detail put into the production of every song (not just the singles) is lost.See, I totally disagree here. With the exception of "Listen To What The Man Said" and "You Gave Me The Answer," I think the production is awful. The overall sound is soft, the guitars thin and ordinary, and it all seems unfocused. The only thing good I can say about V & M is that it was BETTER than what came next.

I suppose the SPEED OF SOUND folks are gonna get on me for that. But, I HATE that album. Like "She's My Baby," like segments of "Beware My Love," like PAUL's demo of "Must Do Something About it," and I like "San Ferry Anne." The rest of it is...ummm...subpar. ANd, half of it isn't even Paul (at least vocally)!

in years to come/they may discover/what the air we breathe and the life we lead are all about/but it won't be soon enough for me

Yesterday I wanted to buy the CD album, but at the store I went to they only had the 'regular' version, where 'Road' is the final song. Not sure why that is, because it's not that the total running time of the songs is that long. So downloaded the 'deluxe version' from iTunes.

I think to me it's in the same league as 'MAF': some songs I like, but there are a number of tracks that won't cut it for me. Actually when I think about it, I think MAF had more tracks I liked. To me the best track from NEW is 'Queenie Eye'. The second best track to me is 'Looking At Her', very recognizable McCartney, but some nice twists while it evolves. The other tracks I like are 'Early days', 'Hosanna' (which he should have made that into a duet) and 'Get Me Out Of Here'. But the other tracks I have this 'been there, done that' feeling (which doesn't mean that I'm glad that Macca is still cranking out music).

What I hate about the album is the way McCartney's voice is processed in almost each of the songs. As if it was to disguise that his voice is not longer what it used to be...

EwaldK wrote:Yesterday I wanted to buy the CD album, but at the store I went to they only had the 'regular' version, where 'Road' is the final song. Not sure why that is, because it's not that the total running time of the songs is that long. So downloaded the 'deluxe version' from iTunes.

I think to me it's in the same league as 'MAF': some songs I like, but there are a number of tracks that won't cut it for me. Actually when I think about it, I think MAF had more tracks I liked. To me the best track from NEW is 'Queenie Eye'. The second best track to me is 'Looking At Her', very recognizable McCartney, but some nice twists while it evolves. The other tracks I like are 'Early days', 'Hosanna' (which he should have made that into a duet) and 'Get Me Out Of Here'. But the other tracks I have this 'been there, done that' feeling (which doesn't mean that I'm glad that Macca is still cranking out music).

What I hate about the album is the way McCartney's voice is processed in almost each of the songs. As if it was to disguise that his voice is not longer what it used to be...

In some parts and some songs huís voice sure is processed but in most song s it s not. And those things are not to hide his voice but to create effects. Actually hus singing on some of the songs here are more unprocessed and naked than ever